www.londonwalks.com

1) Turn off the all caps . . .
2) Does it have to be Jack the Ripper - it isn't necessarily the best walking tour one could choose
3) Ditto London Walks.

"1) Turn off the all caps . . .", I was thinking the same thing!

so you have a problem with caps??? is this better?

Typing in all caps is the equivalent of yelling, and is therefore considered rude. Sorry I can't offer an answer to your question.

Oh my goodness. What else is there to complain about.

IT'S ALL HERE...... oh sorry

This has been discussed several times, and typing jack the ripper in the search the forums box brings up many threads. The most recent and comprehensive is probably this one:

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/jack-the-ripper-and-other-walking-tours.cfm

We went on one in 1996 and it was fantastic. We had two boys 12 and 14 with us and they loved it. We bought the book as well. We thought it was one of the best things we did on our London holiday. Next time in England we would do more.

Seriously - avoid the JtR walks - do any of the others. There's ones for all tastes.

The JtR walk is the biggest tourist trap in London (not to mention ethically very iffy).

CW - used to be a JtR guide. Knows this walk is critic proof.

I know that many consider the Jack the Ripper tour to be a tourist trap and quite tacky. I went on the tour about 20 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I did the one with Donald Rumbelow as the guide. The evening was damp and slightly foggy making the atmosphere perfect.

Cholmondley_Warner on Jan 11, 10 at 05:51 AM
CW - used to be a JtR guide. Knows this walk is critic proof.

Well, I'm going to give you a criticism. I'm sorry we wasted our time doing the Jack the Ripper tour. It was so crowded that we could only hope to catch an occasional phrase from the tour guide. We easily had 50-60 people in our group. We didn't even finish the tour. There was really no point since we couldn't hear anything. And yes, it was a London Walks tour although not with Donald Rumbelow.

RebeccaHWA and takemealong: You both took the tour years ago. The way things are now is TOTALLY different. "The Donald" has turned the tour into a cottage industry. It is not unusual for 100, 150 or more people to be along - it is a mess. The local hate HATE the tours and everyone on them. Noisy, rude and disruptive. Yes, people actually live in those neighborhoods. Plus not a single location still exists. You learn things like "over where that car park is yada yada yada" - or "That used to be the location of the xyz".

What you may have experienced 15, 20 years ago has no bearing on what it is today . . . .

I was in London last Mayand did multiple London Walks. I had heard the same above comments on JtR, so it was not on my list. First hint, if you are going to be doing several, buy their discount card. Cost 2£ and lowers cost of subsequent tours by 2£ each.

I did the St Paul's, British Museum, Old Hamstead, Hamstead Pub Tour, Highgate, Old Palaces and Quarters, and another tour in the Central area.

I liked them all, Highgate was a bit thin on content but still interesting. Note that is does not terminate near a tube station ( I got lost, a bit!). The Old Palaces is times such that you see the end of the Changing of the Guards. Hampstead, liked that area a lot.

Have not been myself but last year met a family in my hotel and they were appalled. (Apparently they knew little in advance.) They did it with kids 8 and 10 and were mortified by their questions about prostitution and the mores of 19th century London. they felt the only benefit was the huge number of people made it hard for the kids to hear much - and left shortly after the start of the tour.

It's DEFINATELY not for young children. The guides are very explicit about what he did, and why and what the women did for a living etc.

It's grusome stuff.

Mmmm - I would have thought that anybody going of a JtR tour would at least know what it was about, and not take their kids.

I was wondering what they thought a tour about a man who murdered prostitutes would be about.....

One thing to be aware of - we have been told that as the Jack the Ripper walking tours are so popular, sometimes someone turns up, pretends to be the guide and takes lots of money then disappears when the real guide turns up. Be sure of who you are giving money to.

London Walks www.walks.com are terrific, we've done quite a few and all have been interesting. The one that includes a boat down the Thames and Greenwich was especially good.

Kay

I was wondering what they thought a tour about a man who murdered prostitutes would be about.....>>>>

You'd be amazed.

I would guess that at least 30% of any tour think that JtR is fictional. (They often think that Holmes is real too).

They also expect it to be some kind of Dickens type romp. Ala The Basil Rathbone Holmes meets My Fair Lady.

They certainly don't expect the very vivid descriptions of what he did (which is horrid indeed).

To give you an idea (not for the squeamish - and expect this to be explained in close detail (that's the flesh from her thigh on the side table for instance):

http://casebook.org/victims/mary_jane_kelly.html

Call me po-faced, but I always fail to see the attraction "Ripperology".
Would people like to view where the Yorkshire Ripper operated with lurid descriptions of his crimes?

Not now, but in 150 years time? Maybe.

I think the time does make a difference, it's like the point when it stops being grave robbing and starts being archaeology.

It's because he was never caught (well he was - but that's another story and is my pension plan).

So people can play with the evidence and play sherlock Holmes.

Also it's a very tight little parcel - five murders (actually lots more) in a six monthe period (actually much longer) escalting in intensity until the last one - which is beyond imagining - and then nothing.

It was also the first serial killer (they didn't call them that of course) of the mass media age - so it had a greater impact than it would have done if 50 years earlier. That's why yanks have heard of it - it was possibly the first global news event.

Also it was the first such case where there was an organised police force to respond to it (and they did really rather well given what was available to them at the time).

I've got the Mets Murder Squad to roleply it as a training excercise - and they couldn't catch him either using what was vailable at the time (he'd be toast with modern methods).

I would put it up there with the wax museum.